Neighbours say the parents of four children killed in a blaze at their suburban home in Werribee, southwest of Melbourne, had no time to get dressed let alone rescue their kids from the flames.
Robert and Nicki Deagan say their dog started barking in the early hours of Sunday morning, which alerted them to noises in the street before their next door neighbour started banging on their door.
“The guy was yelling and screaming, ‘my kids are dead, my kids are dead’,” Mr Deagan told SBS News.
It was then the Deagan’s saw the smoke and the flames.
Ms Deagan described the flames as “huge”.
"I gave her a bed sheet and a blanket ... they didn’t even have time to put some clothes on or pick up their kids, the flames were so intense.
“To see the couple, how devastating it was, it’s really heartbreaking. The whole experience is terrifying.
“That was devastating because everything else is replaceable but you can’t replace people.”
Police say the bodies of boys aged 10 and three, a six-year-old girl and a one-year-old girl were found inside the property in Mantello Drive after a blaze broke out around 1am on Sunday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan says police are unable to say whether the fire is suspicious or not. Source: Richard Carlesso
Their parents along with an eight-year-old boy escape the fire.
All three are in hospital, the man with serious smoke-related injuries, the woman suffering smoke inhalation and the boy with minor injuries.
Mr and Ms Deagan said the family “kept to themselves” but were pleasant. They remember the woman next door telling them last year about her newborn baby.
Fellow neighbour Richard Carlesso came home shortly before the incident to a quiet sleeping street. Within half an hour, he was alerted by sirens and neighbours screaming. The fire took hold incredibly quickly, he said.
Nicki Deagan says the parents had no time to save their children, who died in the blaze. Source: Abby Dinham/SBS News
“At the start of the flames the fire brigade was there working on it and they were throwing everything they had at it; and it just got worse and worse and worse. In minutes it was an inferno. It was horrible,” he told SBS News.
He said the firefighters got it under control very quickly. “They did a fantastic job," he said.
Mr Carlesso said it would be hard for anyone to cope in such circumstances.
Richard Carlesso says the fire engulfing his neighbour's Werribee home, killing four children, took hold in minutes. Source: Abby Dinham/SBS News
“How you move on from that I don’t know. I am a father. It would be horrendous. I would rather have been in there than be the survivor.”
Another neighbour Stephanie Bell said it was impossible to know what to say to the shocked parents.
“I don’t what I could tell them to comfort them, we just pray for strength. There is nothing else I can say," she said.
Ring Mayar from the South Sudanese Community Association says the community's thoughts and prayers are with the family.
"We are shocked and saddened by loss of these four angels, it has impacted all of us," he told SBS News.
"We wish to pay our condolences to the family and urge all of the South Sudanese community to stand together in grief at this time."
Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan says police are unable to yet say whether the fire is suspicious or not.
"Members from the arson explosives squad are here conducting that investigation," he told reporters at the scene.
Investigators were also speaking to the surviving family members in hospital, he said.
"It is a terrible set of circumstances and one that is very difficult for members of the family, and our hearts go out to the family and to the community this morning."
Sgt Ryan said the scene had also been highly distressing for police and emergency services to attend given the circumstances.
He was unable to comment on reports it may have taken as long as 10 minutes to contact triple zero after the blaze erupted.
Fire brigade Lieutenant Damien Molloy said it took about 40 firefighters just under an hour to bring the fire under control.
"We were presented with a house that was well alight," he said.
"Fire had already broken through the roof and was already coming out the front door."
Because of the intensity of the blaze, it was too hard for crews to gain access.
"With the roof already being compromised and the tiles collapsing, it was unsafe for our members to be able to proceed," he said.
The cave-in had also made it difficult to identify the location of the four deceased children.
With the distress of the parents and eight-year-old boy "it was very difficult to get accurate information early on to be able to focus our search areas initially, externally and then internally", Lt Molloy said.
He said there had been a lot of people in the street at the time but the blaze was well beyond anything a neighbour could help extinguish.
With AAP
